Thousands of Israeli troops, backed by tanks and helicopters, have entered the Gaza Strip as Israel escalated its offensive into the territory on the eighth day of operations.

Tanks entered the besieged territory through several points mainly in northern Gaza, crossing shortly after nightfall on Saturday, officials said, while the Israeli cabinet said it had also called up about 9,000 reservists.

The Lies:

Lie #1

Israel is only targeting legitimate military sites and is seeking to protect innocent lives. Israel never targets civilians.

The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated pieces of property in the world. The presence of militants within a civilian population does not, under international law, deprive that population of their protected status, and hence any assault upon that population under the guise of targeting militants is, in fact, a war crime.

Moreover, the people Israel claims are legitimate targets are members of Hamas, which Israel says is a terrorist organization. Hamas has been responsible for firing rockets into Israel. These rockets are extremely inaccurate and thus, even if Hamas intended to hit military targets within Israel, are indiscriminate by nature. When rockets from Gaza kill Israeli civilians, it is a war crime.

Hamas has a military wing. However, it is not entirely a military organization, but a political one. Members of Hamas are the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people. Dozens of these elected leaders have been kidnapped and held in Israeli prisons without charge. Others have been targeted for assassination, such as Nizar Rayan, a top Hamas official. To kill Rayan, Israel targeted a residential apartment building. The strike not only killed Rayan but two of his wives and four of his children, along with six others. There is no justification for such an attack under international law. This was a war crime.

Other of Israel’s bombardment with protected status under international law have included a mosque, a prison, police stations, and a university, in addition to residential buildings.

Moreover, Israel has long held Gaza under siege, allowing only the most minimal amounts of humanitarian supplies to enter. Israel is bombing and killing Palestinian civilians. Countless more have been wounded, and cannot receive medical attention. Hospitals running on generators have little or no fuel. Doctors have no proper equipment or medical supplies to treat the injured. These people, too, are the victims of Israeli policies targeted not at Hamas or legitimate military targets, but directly designed to punish the civilian population.

Lie #2

Hamas violated the cease-fire. The Israeli bombardment is a response to Palestinian rocket fire and is designed to end such rocket attacks.

Israel never observed the cease-fire to begin with. From the beginning, it announced a “special security zone” within the Gaza Strip and announced that Palestinians who enter this zone will be fired upon. In other words, Israel announced its intention that Israeli soldiers would shoot at farmers and other individuals attempting to reach their own land in direct violation of not only the cease-fire but international law.

Despite shooting incidents, including ones resulting in Palestinians getting injured, Hamas still held to the cease-fire from the time it went into effect on June 19 until Israel effectively ended the truce on November 4 by launching an airstrike into Gaza that killed five and injured several others.

Israel’s violation of the cease-fire predictably resulted in retaliation from militants in Gaza who fired rockets into Israel in response. The increased barrage of rocket fire at the end of December is being used as justification for the continued Israeli bombardment, but is a direct response by militants to the Israeli attacks.

Israel’s actions, including its violation of the cease-fire, predictably resulted in an escalation of rocket attacks against its own population.

Lie #3

Hamas is using human shields, a war crime.

There has been no evidence that Hamas has used human shields. The fact is, as previously noted, Gaza is a small piece of property that is densely populated. Israel engages in indiscriminate warfare such as the assassination of Nizar Rayan, in which members of his family were also murdered. It is victims like his dead children that Israel defines as “human shields” in its propaganda. There is no legitimacy for this interpretation under international law. In circumstances such as these, Hamas is not using human shields, Israel is committing war crimes in violation of the Geneva Conventions and other applicable international law.

Lie #4

Arab nations have not condemned Israel’s actions because they understand Israel’s justification for its assault.

The populations of those Arab countries are outraged at Israel’s actions and at their own governments for not condemning Israel’s assault and acting to end the violence. Simply stated, the Arab governments do not represent their respective Arab populations. The populations of the Arab nations have staged mass protests in opposition to not only Israel’s actions but also the inaction of their own governments and what they view as either complacency or complicity in Israel’s crimes.

Moreover, the refusal of Arab nations to take action to come to the aid of the Palestinians is not because they agree with Israel’s actions, but because they are submissive to the will of the US, which fully supports Israel. Egypt, for instance, which refused to open the border to allow Palestinians wounded in the attacks to get medical treatment in Egyptian hospitals, is heavily dependent upon US aid, and is being widely criticized within the population of the Arab countries for what is viewed as an absolute betrayal of the Gaza Palestinians.

Even Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been regarded as a traitor to his own people for blaming Hamas for the suffering of the people of Gaza. Palestinians are also well aware of Abbas’ past perceived betrayals in conniving with Israel and the US to sideline the democratically elected Hamas government, culminating in a counter-coup by Hamas in which it expelled Fatah (the military wing of Abbas’ Palestine Authority) from the Gaza Strip. While his apparent goal was to weaken Hamas and strengthen his own position, the Palestinians and other Arabs in the Middle East are so outraged at Abbas that it is unlikely he will be able to govern effectively.

Lie #5

Israel is not responsible for civilian deaths because it warned the Palestinians of Gaza to flee areas that might be targeted.

Israel claims it sent radio and telephone text messages to residents of Gaza warning them to flee from the coming bombardment. But the people of Gaza have nowhere to flee to. They are trapped within the Gaza Strip. It is by Israeli design that they cannot escape across the border. It is by Israeli design that they have no food, water, or fuel by which to survive. It is by Israeli design that hospitals in Gaza have no electricity and few medical supplies with which to treat the injured and save lives. And Israel has bombed vast areas of Gaza, targeting civilian infrastructure and other sites with protected status under international law. No place is safe within the Gaza Strip.

HISTORY

Prior to the British signing the Balfour Declaration in 1917, which called for a Jewish state, Palestinians made up over 90% of the population of Palestine. In fact, in 1914, Jews only made up 7.5% of the population. After the signing of the Balfour Declaration, Jews began migrating in mass numbers from surrounding areas into Palestine. This migration was haulted for three years from 1936-1939, but then resumed in even greater numbers until 1948, when Israel claimed itself a sovereign state and thus sparking an even larger mass migration of Jews into Palestine. By 1950, only 30 years after the signing of the Balfour Declaration, Jews made up the majority of the population. Basically, if you were to ask all but about 5% of the original Jewish inhabitants where they originated from, they would answer with a country other than Palestine, most likely a country from Eastern Europe and some from neighboring Arab countries. Jews are still migrating into Palestine today in mass numbers and settling in Palestinian territory. Much of these migrating Jews understand the Palestinian situation, but many times choose to ignore it due to overwhelming benefits.

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CONFLICT

In 1947, the United Nations agrees to split Palestine into two states, a Jewish state and a Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as an international city. One issue bothered the Palestinians…the agreement included a Jewish state that made up 54% of the land and 46% to the Palestinians, even though prior to that point the Jews owned only 6% of the land. Then there is the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians out of their rightfully owned lands by Israeli militias, which sparked the bloodshed still seen today. One such horrific act was witnessed in April of 1948, when Zionist militia went into the town of Deir Yassin and murdered 254 innocent civilians, mostly elders, women, children. Many of these incidents along with the inexcusable demolition of thousands of Palestinian homes in the years to come instilled fear into the minds of many Palestinians, forcing them to flee to neighboring countries, most likely Jordan. Those who remained in Palestine to defend their land and refused to submit to the will of Israel were in for a great struggle. Till this day, this struggle includes many war crimes committed by Israel not only in Palestine, but in Lebanon as well, which include: ethnic cleansing, genocide, illegal imprisonment, and illegal occupation. Some of these war crimes were executed by former Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, who was not tried for any of his war crimes. Tyrants similar to Sharon include Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein. Milosevic went onto trial for his crimes and was sentenced to prison, dying 5 years later in his prison cell. Saddam Hussein also went on trial for his tyrannical crimes and was hung to death. The world demands justice, not only from Sharon (who suffered a stroke late 2005 and is currently in a coma), but for any injustices. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere.”

What you don’t know is that the United States has been aiding Israel every year since 1945 with hundreds of millions of dollars. This money comes out of your pockets as tax payers. The U.S. also provides Israel with Caterpillar bulldozers, which are used to demolish homes and Palestinian infrastructure. As a democratic nation, we proudly say that we are combating terrorism, yet we turn the other cheek and fuel a war machine like Israel, but of course…they’re not terrorists. Palestinians have to endure such inhumane actions everyday. Hundreds of thousands have lost their homes, tens of thousands have lost their lives, and all have been deprived of their integrity and hope for freedom.

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THE SUICIDE BOMBER

Much of the news coverage you hear especially in America is biased news about the terrorist actions of suicide bombers in Palestine. What they don’t mention is what equates to such actions. Israel has gone as far as to literally torture Palestinians by poisoning their water, poisoning livestock, destroying electrical power plants, and destroying roads. People cannot go to prayer, let alone work, to provide their families with an income that can keep them alive. Many in Gaza, one of the most densely populated regions in the world, are living in total darkness due to the recent destruction of their only electrical power plant. In essence, Israel gives birth to these Suicide Bombers. No civilian deserves to die, whether Israeli or Palestinian. There is no legitimate excuse for the execution of innocent lives. Both sides though, have extremists trying to support their cause. Suicide bombers never existed before the Zionist regime took over in Israel, but that still doesn’t justify the loss of civilian life.

Since Palestinian suicide bombers are terrorists; what word would you use to describe Israeli actions?

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PERSONAL STATEMENT

I urge you to maintain open mindedness and not believe all that you may hear in the news. I also urge you to do your own research and not take my word for it either. You will be surprised at what you find. I have not even hit the surface when it comes to facts, so dig further. I have witnessed many of these injustices with my own eyes, so its time for you to open yours.

*Please remember, there are plenty of Jews, even Rabbi’s, that are entirely against the Zionist movement. Also, do not confuse a person who practices Judaism with a Zionist. Zionists are not all necessarily Jews, and not all Jews are necessarily Zionists*

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 31, 2008

For over 6,000 years, Patriarchy has ruled this planet with their fear-based, corrupted, inhumane ways. Now, in its death throes, as all patriarchs before, the global collapse of his greed-based economy approaches.

Noble Red Man (Matthew King) of the Great Lakotah Nation, once wrote:

God’s Instructions: White man came to this Country and forgot his original Instructions. We Indians have never forgotten our Instructions. God gave Instructions to every creature, according to His plan for the World. He gave His Instructions to all things of Nature. The pine tree and the birch tree, they still follow their Instructions and do their duty in God’s world. The flowers, even the littlest flower, they bloom and they pass away accordingly to his instructions. The birds, even the smallest bird, they live and they fly and they sing according to their Instructions. Should human beings be any different?

Legal scholar Felix Cohen wrote, “The American Indian is the miner’s canary of Liberty.”

Once again, I must remind you that every policy of America’s evil Empire, domestic and international, was bred, born and perfected in America’s concentration camps, i.e. American Indian Reservations. To continue to ignore and refuse to discuss these colonial realities at length and in depth means the American people are doomed to even worse deprivation of their rights than they are now suffering. Your educational, health, justice, religious, economic and land policies will become far worse than you can imagine.

To continue in the sad dictatorship of DemoPublicans is the supreme strategy of dementia. There has to be matriarchal thought and philosophy brought into the realities of life and this nation if the American people are to survive.

If you continue to ignore the original people of this land it will be to your own and the world’s peril.

The Patriarch teaches his three R’s: reading, riting and rithmetic, while Matriarchy teaches the three L’s; look, listen, learn.

If you look around the World today. If you listen to what grandmother Earth is saying. You will learn that we must change our ways. For those that do not learn from their history, are doomed to repeat it. With out the return to Matriarchy, we are surely doomed. View the video

These ceremonies occur during different stages of human life, and seasonal change. Though different in nature, the common focus among all of them was the health and healing of individuals and the community. Proper, regular involvement in the essential community ceremonies was, and still is, seen as fundamental to Lakota healing (Red Deer, 2001).

The prohibition of Sioux ceremonies and gatherings during the 1800s and 1900s resulted in the loss of cultural continuity, knowledge and reduced the importance and frequency of some of these ceremonies (Bucko, 1998). Today, these ceremonies are practiced in varying degrees depending on the region and the community. The most common of these community ceremonies today are the Canupa (Pipe Ceremony), Inipi
(Sweat Lodge), the Hanblecha (Vision Quest) and the Winwangwacipi (Sun Dance). Each of these four ceremonies are used to bring psychological, physical, spiritual and emotional healing to individuals and communities (Erdoes and Crow Dog, 1995).

The first people who lived on the northern plains of what today is the United States called themselves “Lakotah,” meaning “the allies,” a word which provides the semantic basis for Dakotah. The first European people to meet the Lakotah called them “Sioux,” a contraction of Nadowessioux, a now-archaic French-Canadian word meaning “snake” or enemy.

The Lakotah also used the metaphor to describe the newcomers. It was Wasi’chu, which means “takes the fat,” or “greedy person.” Within the modern Indian movement, Wasi’chu has come to mean those corporations and individuals, with their governmental accomplices, which continue to covet Indian lives, land, and resources for private profit.

Wasi’chu does not describe a race; it describes a state of mind.

Wasi’chu is also a human condition based on inhumanity, racism, and exploitation. It is a sickness, a seemingly incurable and contagious disease which begot the ever advancing society of the West. If we do not control it, this disease will surely be the basis for what may be the last of the continuing wars against the Native American people.

…excerpt from Wasi’chu, The Continuing Indian Wars,
Bruce Johansen and Robert Maestas
with an introduction by John Redhouse

Somber, tragic description of the Imperialist Patriarchies attacks on the peoples of Gaza and Iraq; some of the USA’s latest, but not so well hidden, Indian Reservations. Russell also reveals that ALL THREE of the health facilities on the Pine Ridge Sioux Indian Reservation were closed for the Christmas holiday. These facilities, the Kyle and Wanbli Health Clinics and the Pine Ridge Hospital represent the sum total of our health care facilities for this 4,500 square mile Reservation. These facilities are operated under the “auspices” of the Indian Health Service which is part the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

Violence at Gaza protest in Yemen

Protests have been held across the Middle East against the four-day-Israeli air attack on Gaza [AFP]

Demonstrators in the Yemeni port city of Aden have broken into the Egyptian consulate in a protest against Cairo’s response to Israel’s offensive against Gaza, a security official has said.

The protesters, who were mostly students from the University of Aden, “vandalized furniture before they were removed peacefully from the building”, the official said on Tuesday, asking not to be identified.

Another security official said three staff members were inside the building at the time but they were unhurt.

The official said one protester was wounded when a consular guard opened fire and that the protesters retaliated by setting fire to two consular vehicles.

More than 20 demonstrators were arrested.

Protests have been held across the Middle East against the four-day-Israeli air attack on Gaza, which has killed at least 360 Palestinians and wounded more than 1,600.

Many Arabs have accused Cairo of giving the green light to Israel’s assault after Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s president, hosted Tzipi Livni, Israel’s foreign minister, for talks just two days before the launch of the onslaught.

Rafah Closure

In the absence of Israeli embassies in most Arab capitals, Egyptian diplomatic missions have been a particular focus of the demonstrations.

Protests have also been held outside the Egyptian embassy in Amman, the capital of Jordan.

Egypt has come under heavy criticism from Arab and Muslim countries over its refusal to re-open its border crossing with the Gaza Strip at Rafah over the past year, thereby aiding Israel’s blockade of the territory.

Mubarak announced on Egyptian television on Tuesday that the Rafah crossing will not be fully re-opened until Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, regains authority in the territory.

“We will not deepen the division and that breach [among the Palestinians] by opening Rafah border crossing in the absence of the Palestinian Authority and the European Union monitors,” he said, making reference to a 2005 agreement over the border.

About 2,000 Gazans gathered today at the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt to protest its continued closure.

Many of the protesters were family members who have been awaiting the return of their relatives from Egypt since the crossing was closed on June 9, when Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip.

Egyptian officials were also reportedly restricting access to Rafah and planning to impose an indefinite curfew, amid rumors of a plan by armed Palestinians to blow up a border wall in order to allow the passage of the thousands people waiting at the crossing.

The Palestinian Ministry of Information estimates that about 6,000 Palestinians are stranded on the Egyptian side of the crossing, with approximately another 30,000 waiting elsewhere in Egypt for the border to reopen.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports that 25 Palestinians who had traveled to Egypt for medical treatment have died waiting at the crossing. Their bodies were recently returned to Gaza through special coordination with Israel.

Israel has proposed allowing the stranded Palestinians to re-enter the Gaza Strip through the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing, which it controls. Egypt supports the plan, but Hamas has rejected it, stating that travelers must be allowed to cross at Rafah.

Jakarta rally

Thousands have also rallied in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, to voice their opposition to the Israeli assault on Gaza.

Demonstrators waved Palestinian and Indonesian flags while some carried banners with slogans such as “Move Israel outside Palestine land”.

Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation and many Indonesians have been staunch supporters of the Palestinian cause.

The protest coincided with a condemnation of the raids by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia’s president.

“I have sent a letter to the secretary-general of United Nations as well as to the UN security council condemning the Israeli military attacks and urging swift action to resolve the conflict,” Yudhoyono said.

“The security council must formally meet and issue a resolution to force Israel to end all attacks, so that Israeli and Palestinian can continue the peace process.”

Russell shares his vision for the second year of the Republic of Lakotah. He invites us to join in finishing the TREATY School and other construction projects this summer and speaks about the continuing efforts to run Tribal candidates on the “Freedom Ticket.”

Conservative Issues, Conservative Guy

Crimes Against Humanity on US Soil?

Posted: 10 Dec 2008 10:40 AM CST
Forget US government bail-outs, presidential appointments, scandalous Illinois politicians, the stock market, or US consumer indexes… just for a moment… and contemplate this thought: The United States has grossly failed in Native American Policies.

A fate which in America means worse than being a black slave of old, being a Native of America. It is an identity that, even today, draws the ire of most Americans. Indians, especially those living on the US concentration camps, called reservations, are labeled as drunks, people who need to be “Americanized”, or who have otherwise been cast aside to be warehoused on the reservations. It is the great tragedy of US history – and of US current!

In late November, I reported on a declaration of emergency coming out of the Lakotah areas of SD, after the state’s US government declared emergency for the entire state, but did not send aid to the most impoverished and most harshly affected areas of the state – the Lakotah Reservations, namely Pine Ridge. Similarly, others’ reports of this internal call for aid resulted in relief to the area, and the accounting for many of the missing or stranded elderly Sioux. The lack of state response is another echo of failed policies with regards to the Native Peoples.

I had to ask myself the question – What is the root cause of the failed policies in the US with regards to the Native American people? So to start, I would like to propose a question to my readers – generically, how do you view native Americans? I say generically, because when I say Indian or Native American, is your first thought a reservation Indian, an Indian in picturesque head-dress, rich with culture, or in poverty as a part of the anti-culture?

I view native people, and their culture, very favorably. Just as I believe that Europeans and other old-worlders are unique because they embrace their own regional cultures and traditions, Americans have a unique identity in the ability to embrace not just their European (or other) culture, but to also embrace the culture of the natives on whose land they now call their home. For instance, over the last 20 years, Seattle and the Pacific Northwest has seen a resurgence in embracing the cultures of the pacific coastal natives. It is celebrated in a culture that has become uniquely “northwest”, and has opened a celebration of the once persecuted tribes, teaching history and culture to children – both on and off reservation. It has become a unique regional identity. Such an openness in the Northwest has allowed tribes to openly teach their traditions, culture, and language – doing so, for the first time since settlement, with pride and basic human dignity.

The same can largely be said for the Navajo – whose culture is openly embraced by locals and those throughout the region – most notably for their art and beautiful traditional jewelry.

Unfortunately, the embrace of the Native Cultures stops there… In fact, in regards to the Sioux, there is still a policy of racial persecution, extermination of culture and language, and the disregard for basic human dignity… the very definition of Crimes Against Humanity. In public international law, a crime against humanity is an act of persecution or any large-scale atrocity against a body of people, and is the highest level of criminal offense. The Rome Statute Explanatory Memorandum states that crimes against humanity “are particularly odious offenses in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings.

They are not isolated or sporadic events, but are part either of a government policy (although the perpetrators need not identify themselves with this policy) or of a wide practice of atrocities tolerated or condoned by a government or a de facto authority.
The Sioux were the main target/adversary of the US’ “Indian War” in the plains – a policy of invasion, occupation, murder, and forced imprisonment aimed at exterminating the Indian Culture, and the Sioux resistance to foreign persons destroying their food source, stealing their rightfully owned precious metals and other natural resources, and directly violating treaties signed with the US (Laramie 1851, 1868). The Sioux fought the US because they had broken their treaties… The US fought for the idea of Manifest Destiny. Such acts are considered Crimes Against Humanity by the ICC:

For the purpose of this Statute, “crime against humanity” means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:
(a) Murder;
(b) Extermination;
(c) Enslavement;
(d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population;
(e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;
(f) Torture;
(g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
(h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;
(i) Enforced disappearance of persons;
(j) The crime of apartheid;
(k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.

Of course the common answer is that the Indians are free to live on or leave the reservations – and their poverty is of their own free will – therefore the Persecution is self imposed.

This is the very mindset that reinforces continued crimes against human dignity! And it is the thought of many or most Americans – as is reflected in our policies.

The very existence of the Bureau of Indian Affairs is a teeter on the brink of Apartheid – considering the fact that Indian Nations are free and sovereign, but are regulated by the US government. It is an agency which disallows the ability for Native Tribes to encourage ownership and private property economic growth on the reservations – as lands are held “in trust” for the tribe… forced socialism, forced poverty for those on the reservation.

In UNITED STATES v. SIOUX NATION OF INDIANS, 448 U.S. 371 (1980), The SCOTUS determined that the US government had wrongly taken Sioux land through acts of Congress after the 1868 Laramie Treaty, and in violation of such treaty, demanding just compensation for the land taken under Amendment 5 of the US Constitution. The Sioux refused, and continue to refuse payment for the lands – demanding, instead, for the return of lands protected by the treaty with the United States – outlining a free and independent nation for the Sioux.

Under a Free and Independent nation, Sioux would be free to operate independently from US regulations and taxation (though they are currently free from taxation – businesses within Sioux Lands would be freed from US Corporate Taxes) creating tax havens similar to Switzerland, Private Property and land ownership would be regulated by the tribe and not held in “limbo trust” by the US government – this would allow entrepreneurship to take root, not limiting their ability to casinos and liquor. The opportunities are endless, and the Republic of Lakotah movement is working to advocate for the free market investment in such a free and independent nation, as promised by the treaties (and acknowledged by the courts).

Where some argue that reservations should be eradicated, land placed on the free market, and Indian assimilation finally be complete (Kevin Tracy), I argue that the US live up to the treaties, respecting the sovereignty of the Native peoples (especially the Sioux which have held to not accepting a dime of payment for their land, furthering the case that they hold in that their land was illegally taken) – in doing so, the United States would be ending a centuries old violation of crimes against humanity, and finally making good with the original inhabitants of this great land.